Nigeria commends UNICEF support for girl education

Did your programme to increase female enrolment in schools succeed because of tutoring or because family incomes were rising? Photograph: Ashraf Shazly/AFP/Getty Images

The Federal Ministry of Information has commended the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) support in ensuring that basic education is brought to girls in Nigeria.

Information Minister Alhaji Lai Mohammad made the commendation in Zamfara at the opening of a two-day media dialogue on Girls for Girls Initiative.

The minister who was represented by Deputy Director and Head of Advocacy Child Rights Information Bureau, Mr Olumide Osanyipeju noted that the Girls 4 Girls Initiative is a component of the Girls’ Education project phase 3 being implemented in Northern Nigeria to help support girls to remain in school and improve their learning achievement.

He stated that girls are a very important part of the society, and indeed a high percentage of success in developmental processes in any society could be associated to girls because of the peculiar place they occupy in the home and the role they play in society at large.

“It is important that girls are empowered especially through education, to be able to imbibe good knowledge and promote education when they are married,” he said.

The minister also urged the media to sensitize the people especially the duty bearers of the need to enroll girls in school.

Girls 4 Girls Initiative is a school based, safe space extracurricular activity established in support of enrolled girls in local government schools funded by DFID and UKaid and implemented through UNICEF in Northern Nigeria.

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